Another sale round for tavern

AUSTRALIAN Leisure Group’s Commercial Tavern in Ayr, Queensland is back on the market after failing to sell several years ago, with the company hoping strong demand will result in the ALH-tenanted pub finally changing hands.

Andrew Jolliffe, of Ray White Hotels, is marketing the property alongside Burgess Rawson, only weeks after selling another ALH-leased hotel, the Cambridge Tavern in Sydney’s western suburb of Fairfield for more than $20 million.

“Prior to, and as a result of the sale of the Cambridge Tavern, interest in this investment-grade hotel asset class has been particularly strong,” Mr Jolliffe said.

Both the Cambridge Tavern and Commercial Tavern failed to sell at auction in 2010, with the Commercial passed in for $7.8m on a bid from a north Queensland investor.

The pub has a BWS bottle shop, a large car park and 40 poker machine licences, and is on a long-term lease to Woolworths-owned ALH.

Glenn Price, an agent at CBRE Hotels, said he was seeing an increasing demand for Queensland hotels from interstate publicans.

Earlier this month he sold the Acacia Ridge hotel to a Sydney-based investor for about $16m. CBRE is also marketing the Grand View Hotel at Cleveland, on Moreton Bay, which is expected to sell for about $15m.

Source:  The Australian - 9 July 2014